To Know A Brother's Love
by PwnedByPineapple
Summary: All Sam has to do is remember, and he is himself again. Tag to 5.22 'Swan Song'.


**Recommended listening: "Angels on the Moon" by Thriving Ivory**

* * *

**_"This is to one last day in the shadows_**  
**_and to know a brother's love._**  
**_This is to New York City angels_**  
**_and the rivers of our blood."_**

Sam is shouting and fighting, screaming and struggling, but his efforts are pathetic at best, compared to the malevolent power in his head that holds him at bay. His body moves against his will, and in truth his will is fading. He doesn't really want to fight anymore; he's tired, too, tired of all the shit he and Dean have been through.

_Dean._

"Sammy? Can you hear me?"

Lucifer turns to glare at Dean, and Sam continues to fight, because he doesn't want the bastard who's possessing him to even _look_ at his brother, _his brother_, who came here for _him_, for Sammy. _I'm still Sammy, I can still fight him._

It was a hopeless plan, really, and Sam wonders why he ever thought, even for the slightest moment, that it would ever work. He wonders how he could have been so arrogant, to believe that he could have overpowered something so maliciously strong.

"You know," he hears himself say, "I tried to be nice, for Sammy's sake. But you," Lucifer grabs Dean's coat, "are such a _pain_," his grip tightens, "in my ass."

Sam starts to shout again, feeling his strength resurge in fear for his brother. _Don't you dare touch him, you son of a bitch!_ But he can hear the Devil's voice, whispering in his mind, bringing to dark light all his secrets fears and desires and sins, making him weak with the weight of them. With so little effort, Lucifer throws Dean against the Impala, and Sam can hear glass break.

As Lucifer begins to walk forward, intent on hurting Dean as much as possible, Sam can hear gunfire, and he feels a bullet hit his back. There is no pain, and it does nothing, but he can feel the Devil's irritation. Lucifer turns, and another shot. Bobby is holding a gun, aiming at them, and Sam panics again. _No, no, no, no, no!_ he screams, as Lucifer raises a hand. Sam can feel power surge, and Bobby's neck snaps, as easily as a twig.

"_No!_" Dean and Sam yell, Dean's voice loud and grief-stricken, Sam's silent but just as agonized.

But Lucifer isn't done yet. "Yes," he growls and pulls Dean off the hood of the Impala. When he punches Dean, Sam cringes, feeling his own hand hit flesh and draw blood. He can barely struggle anymore, such is the Devil's rage, but he doesn't stop fighting, because he can't let Lucifer hurt Dean.

"Sammy?" Dean is shaken. "You in there?"

"Oh, he's in there, all right." Another punch, and the resounding crack hurts Sam as much as it hurts Dean. "And he's going to feel the snap of your bones." Another punch. Dean falls to the ground. "Every single one."

Lucifer lifts Dean, shoves him against the Impala. "We're going to take our time." He punches Dean in the face, again, again, again. Dean isn't fighting back, not lifting a finger to hurt his brother, while Sam continues to hurt him. Sam cries out against it, sobbing, fighting weakly and uselessly to stop the Devil, but the Devil can't be stopped. Again, again, again. Lucifer's strength is inhuman, and with every punch Dean's face becomes more bloody, more broken, more battered.

Sam can't take it anymore.

"Sammy. It's okay." Dean is speaking, speaking to him, as if he knows. His voice, hurt and exhausted, still has a small hope. "It's okay, I'm here. I'm here, I'm not going to leave you."

The words bring comfort and strength to the Sammy that's curled up in his own mind, begging Lucifer to stop. He tries to get up, tries to fight. Lucifer punches Dean again, again, trying to break them both.

"I'm not going to leave you," Dean gasps.

Sam is fighting again, but the Devil's will is still stronger. He raises a hand for another blow, and there is sunlight shining off the Impala, shining in his eye. It distracts him for a moment, and Sam can see a toy soldier in the door.

Memories. It brings them back.

Lucifer can see them too, and he tries to suppress them, but Sam can't be stopped now. He's remembering when he and Dean were kids, playing in the Impala because it was more a home to them than any house was. He's remembering everything, everything that ever made him and Dean brothers. Long nights on the road, the good times, the bad, the everything, and most of it inside the Impala too. He can remember it all, because Lucifer is slowly losing control as Sam remembers Dean, remembers everything that Dean did for him, means to him, remembers his brother.

_MY BROTHER._

And like that, he is himself again, wresting control of his body from the Devil.

He can see Dean, bloodied and hurt, leaning against the Impala. "It's okay, Dean," Sam says, echoing his brother's earlier words. It is his turn to comfort Dean, to let him know that it's him, that he's in control now. "It's gonna be okay. I've got him."

He can feel the Devil inside him, shrieking in rage, battering him with a will of unimaginable force. But Lucifer isn't getting control again any time soon, because Sam's remembered Dean, and while those memories are strong in his mind, there isn't anything the Devil can do about it.

_**"This is to all of us,  
to all of us."**_


End file.
